Robert Horton, Writing About Film

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About This Site

The Crop Duster has two goals. One is to organize links to my critical work: reviews written for The Herald (Everett, Washington) and Seattle Weekly; and public appearances and TV jobs. Selected past work for Film Comment and elsewhere is also linkified. You may also link to my website of 1980s reviews and learn more about my book on Frankenstein and my graphic novel, ROTTEN.

The second goal is to keep a daily record of films watched, annotated with brisk, brief comments. It's a slightly more advanced version of the movie list I kept, in Flair pen, thumbtacked next to my bed when I was twelve.

Pages

The Wolverine (James Mangold, 2013). Yes, finally catching up with one that opened while I was gone. And it was Labor Day afternoon, and that’s what people do on a holiday afternoon, right, go see a big movie at the multiplex? I saw worse summer movies this year. Definitely looks like Mangold was auditioning for a future James Bond gig. Hell, maybe Hugh Jackman was, too. If so, this was the You Only Live Twice of the Marvel universe. (I’ll bet somebody else has already used that line – that’s what happens when you see something late in the game.)

The Lodger (Alfred Hitchcock, 1927). Definitely a nicer print than the last time I saw this one. Gobs of future Hitchcock devices offered up in youthful form. And it demands to be watched closely, or you miss a bunch of ripples, none of them reassuring.

Afternoon Delight (Jill Soloway, 2013). Kathryn Hahn has got something interesting going on, and other funny people are here, too, but the thing overall is just too much of a stretcher. (full review 9/6)

Thérèse (Claude Miller, 2012). This was Miller’s final film before his death, and the movie has a funereal mood. Not going to claim greatness for it, but there is something admirable and eerie about its utter refusal to woo the audience. Audrey Tautou is quite good in poker-faced form; she looks 37 even when she’s supposed to be 17, as though the entire story takes place in her adult present-tense, with her rational, all-seeing self doomed to relive a stultifying existence. Interesting movie. (full review 9/6)